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News in General

SUN Approves Oracle Merger, Cancels "Rock"

At a special meeting on July 16, 2009, Sun Microsystems stockholders
adopted the merger agreement with Oracle Corporation, under which
Oracle will acquire Sun common stock for $9.50 per share (or $7.4
billion). Approximately 62% of Sun shares outstanding voted for the
deal.

Recently, Sun has been reported as cancelling its multi-billion dollar
"Rock" program, which was based on a new third-generation SPARC
architecture for high-end systems. Sun had said the next SPARC
processor was part of its plan to compete with PowerPC and x86 chips.

Rock was designed with 16 cores, each of which had two software
threads. Rock used hardware-based dynamic parallelization of the
instruction stream, and would have been the first processor to use
transactional memory in hardware.

NY Times Releases Thesaurus to Linked Data Cloud, FOSS Data Converter

At a keynote presentation at the 2009 Semantic Technology Conference,
in San Jose, California, staff from the New York Times made a
significant announcement regarding use of the NYT Annotated Corpus and
the NYT Index in the "Linked Data Cloud".

For nearly 100 years, the staff at the New York Times have
maintained a thesaurus for use with its content. The thesaurus consists
of more than a million terms organized into five controlled
vocabularies: subjects, personal names, organizations, geographic
locations, and the titles of creative works (books, movies, plays,
etc).

At the June Semantic Technology Conference, Rob Larson and Evan Sandhaus
announced their intention to publish the New York Times
thesaurus under a license that will allow the community to both use it
and contribute back to it. The results will, in time, prepare the New
York Times to enter the global linked data cloud, by releasing its
thesaurus in linked data format.

Releasing the Times thesaurus is consistent with their developing
TimesOpen strategy. In a blog entry at the Times's "Open" site,
Larson and Sandhaus wrote, "We want to facilitate access to slices of
our data for those who want to include Times content in their
applications. Our TimesTags API already makes available our most
frequently used tags, the 27,000 that power our topics pages. But the
new effort will go well beyond that. We plan to release hundreds of
thousands of tags from the corpus back to 1980, and, later, in a second
phase, hundreds of thousands more, going back to 1851."

Their plan is that user and Semantic Technology communities will begin
to link the NY Times thesaurus to new and existing taxonomies, and
eventually help standardize the use of those terms on the World Wide
Web.

The specific license details remain to be worked out, but will be based
on one or more existing open source licenses.

Also, in June, the NY Times released a PHP framework called
NYT_Transformer. This is a flexible open source data converter that
can be customized for various input and output types.

NYT_Transformer accepts records from an input source, passes them
through filters, and sends them to an output object. It can also
perform further data manipulation, such as changing the data in the
resulting records or discarding records based on criteria specified.
It was originally developed to convert XML data for storage in a MySQL
database. NYT_Transformer uses the Apache 2.0 license.

Conferences and Events

USENIX Security Symposium

August 10–14, 2009, Montreal, QC, Canada

Join us at the 18th USENIX Security Symposium, August 10–14, 2009, in
Montreal, Canada.

USENIX Security '09 will help you stay ahead of the game by offering
innovative research in a 5-day program that includes in-depth tutorials by
experts such as Patrick McDaniel, Frank Adelstein, and Phil Cox; a
comprehensive technical program, including a keynote address by Rich
Cannings and David Bort of the Google Android Project; invited talks,
including the "Top Ten Web Hacking Techniques of 2008: 'What's possible,
not probable,' " by Jeremiah Grossman, WhiteHat Security; a refereed papers
track, including 26 papers presenting the best new research;
Work-in-Progress reports; and a Poster session. Learn the latest in
security research, including memory safety, RFID, network security, attacks
on privacy, and more.

Distro News

RHEL 5.4 Beta Now Available

Early in July, Red Hat released the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4 beta
(kernel-2.6.18-155.el5), with versions for x86, x86/64, Itanium, IBM
POWER, and System z. This RHEL beta release includes a variety of new
features and capabilities, combined with enhancements in
virtualization, storage/filesystems, security, and developer tools.

The most exciting new capability in the RHEL 5.4 beta is the
incorporation of KVM-based virtualization, in addition to existing
Xen-based virtualization. RHEL 5.4 provides the first
commercial-strength implementation of KVM, which is developed as part
of the upstream Linux kernel. Xen-based virtualization, of course,
remains fully supported for the life of the RHEL 5 family. Red Hat
also announced the availability of the beta release of the Red Hat
Enterprise Virtualization portfolio, which includes Red Hat Enterprise
Virtualization Manager for Servers, Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization
Manager for Desktops, and the standalone, KVM-based Red Hat Enterprise
Virtualization Hypervisor.

An important feature of any RHEL update is that kernel and user APIs
are unchanged, so that RHEL 5 applications do not need to be rebuilt
or re-certified. This situation extends to virtualized environments:
with a fully integrated hypervisor, the application binary interface
(ABI) consistency offered by RHEL means that applications certified to
run on RHEL on physical machines are also certified when run in
virtual machines. The portfolio of thousands of certified applications
for RHEL applies to both environments.

Here are some additional highlights:

Virtualization Enhancements

KVM hypervisor;

Hardware support (SRIOV, IOMMU, VT-d):
With this release, Red Hat is introducing support for SRIOV
(Single Root I/O for Virtualization). This feature aims to
improve transaction throughput performance in virtual
environments, by taking advantage of PCI cards that can be shared
by multiple virtual machines at one time without creating a
throughput bottleneck. These throughput improvements combine
with previous CPU and memory performance enhancements to allow
customers to further consolidate workloads to lower their costs.
SRIOV works with either IOMMU or VT-d, in AMD and Intel platforms,
respectively;

VDI SPICE protocol enablers:
This software, unique to Red Hat, offers better response times
for graphic/screen rendering by adaptively taking advantage of
either client or host capabilities. This leads to better CPU
usage, enabling improved VDI consolidation ratios, without
the need for expensive special hardware;

Libvirt:
perl interface for libvirt (new);

Kernel:
Improved clock management when RHEL is deployed on a VMware
platform.

Storage/FileSystem

New Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) utilities for management
of FC instances on Ethernet;

Software and Product News

TopQuadrant Offers Free Semantic Web Modeling Tool

TopQuadrant, a major player in Semantic Web application development
technology, released TopBraid Composer Free Edition, a professional
editing and querying tool for Semantic Web technology that allows
users to view, share, and query RDF data. TopBraid Composer Free
Edition is a starter version of TopBraid Composer, a leading
commercial Semantic Web modeling tool.

Technical users can build enterprise-class semantic models, design and
edit semantic queries, create semantic business rules, and share their
creations with others for free. Users can also import RDFa markup used
to publish machine-readable data on the Web. TopBraid Composer Free
Edition simplifies the process of linking business logic to domain
models by providing an object-oriented rule model.

"There is fast-growing interest from all industries to understand the
unique data quality, data integration, and dynamic discovery benefits
that Semantic Web technology has to offer," said Holger Knublauch, VP
of product development at TopQuadrant. "But we recognize that
unfamiliarity with W3C Semantic Web standards and cost are two
obstacles prohibiting many organizations from starting a Semantic Web
project. By offering a free version of our modeling environment, we
are removing these barriers." Knublauch is a co-creator of Owl, and
joined TopQuadrant a few years ago.

TopBraid Composer Free Edition shortens the learning curve for
starting Semantic Web projects by using Eclipse, a popular open source
development environment that is familiar to a broad set of developers.
In addition to support for W3C standards such as RDF, OWL, and SPARQL,
TopBraid Composer Free Edition also includes SPIN (SPARQL Inferencing
Notation), the first Semantic Web language with an explicit
object-oriented rule model that can link business logic and domain
models. SPIN eliminates the need to learn OWL to link RDF resources
with associated queries or to reuse queries.

NASA recently announced it is using TopBraid Suite 3.0 as a semantic
application platform to model, organize, integrate, and exchange data
within and across the multi-decade Constellation Program. NASA's use
of TopBraid Suite is a significant commitment to using a semantic data
architecture in the full "engineering-through-operations" lifecycle to
achieve the Constellation Program's ambitious planetary exploration
goals, which include manned travel to Mars.

More specifically, NASA will use TopBraid to develop and manage NExIOM
- the NASA Exploration Initiatives Ontology models. NExIOM formalizes
the way machines and people specify NASA Exploration systems, related
work activities, and their interrelationships.

Transaction Perspective 9.0 includes new support for interactive Flash
and Silverlight, composite Web transactions, and 3rd party online ad
tracking.

In April, Keynote Systems introduced LoadPro 2.0, which enhanced its
load-testing tools in support of user metrics or Quality of Experience
(QoE). Keynote has already established strengths in QoE-related
testing with a strong "human face," including insights into business
competitiveness globally, as well as domain and consulting expertise
in how consumers interact with Internet services.

EMA (http://www.enterprisemanagement.com/), a leading market research
analyst firm, wrote a very positive note on Keynote LoadPro 2.0. The
new version includes a new end user portal, an expansive overview
dashboard, precise visibility into real time tests as they execute,
and comprehensive enterprise-level account management. The new
functionality is built on top of a dedicated load testing network that
can deliver up to one million concurrent test users across multiple
Internet backbones.

Recent research from EMA in December, 2008, established that 79% of
the 207 respondents view QoE as becoming more important to their
business or organization. QoE demands a focus on the "human consumer"
in all his or her complexities, rather than on more convenient, but
far less relevant, component-centric technology metrics.

Sourcefire, creator of Snort, announced Sourcefire 3D System 4.9, with
the new Sourcefire Virtual 3D Sensor and Sourcefire Virtual Defense
Center. These new virtual appliances enable users to deploy the
company's security solutions within their virtual environments.
Available during the second half of 2009, the Sourcefire 3D System 4.9
also features the industry's first policy layering capabilities that
deliver increased customization for large or multi-organizational
networks, including cloud or virtual implementations.

As part of the Sourcefire 3D System 4.9, the new virtual appliances
allow organizations to inspect traffic between virtual machines, while
also making it easier to deploy and manage sensors at remote sites,
where resources may be limited. They also enable Managed Security
Service Providers (MSSPs) and cloud computing companies to easily
implement Sourcefire's leading security solutions for increased
protection. MSSPs can configure multiple Virtual Defense Centers to
support multiple customers from a single VMware server, increasing the
efficiency of management efforts.

Users can deploy Virtual 3D Sensors on VMware ESX and ESXi platforms
to inspect traffic between two or more virtual machines (VMs), while
also using physical Sourcefire 3D Sensors to inspect traffic going
into and out of a VMware virtual environment. Deployed as software
running within VMs, the Virtual 3D Sensor also makes it easier for
users to inspect traffic on remote segments of the network where local
IT security resources may not exist (e.g., retail stores, remote
offices) or where little rack space remains in the datacenter.

The Virtual 3D Sensor will provide simultaneous execution of
Sourcefire IPS, RNA (Real-time Network Awareness) and RUA (Real-time
User Awareness) functions. Customers can deploy the Virtual Defense
Center to monitor any combination of up to 25 virtual or physical 3D
Sensors. They can also opt to monitor their Virtual 3D Sensors from
the same physical Defense Center they use to monitor their physical 3D
Sensors.

Sourcefire 3D System v4.9 Will Be Available in
Second Half of 2009

The new Version of VNC Enterprise provides cross-platform remote
printing. In June, RealVNC launched the latest version of its enterprise
VNC solution for remote desktop control. VNC Enterprise Edition 4.5 offers
fully cross-platform remote printing, enabling users to print documents
from the remote machine to the local default printer on the VNC Viewer.
Other new features include enhanced cross-platform chat, support for
international characters, and more robust performance.

Designed and built by the original inventors of VNC, VNC Enterprise
Edition 4.5 has a wide range of applications - from desktop support and
assistance in a business environment to delivering Linux and Unix
applications to Windows or Mac users. Also, because it is designed
specifically for the enterprise, it includes multiple configurable
security mechanisms, and is backed up with full technical support and
maintenance.

Cross-platform remote printing means that when a connection is made,
documents printed by the remote computer running VNC Server will
automatically default to the local printer attached to the computer
running VNC Viewer.

VNC Enterprise Edition 4.5 also supports cross-platform chat, creating
a quick and simple channel of communication between users, which can
be initiated from either end. VNC Server can now notify users of
incoming connections for added security.

The cost of VNC Enterprise Edition 4.5 starts at $50 for a single
VNC Server licence, with discounted volume pricing starting at three
copies, quickly reducing the unit price. In addition, there are
generous academic, governmental and non-profit discounts available on
request.

HP Ships Workstation with Dual 6-core 'Istanbul' Opteron CPUs

HP officials say the troubled economy is putting pressure on
businesses to quickly get a return on their IT investments, which the
new AMD Opteron chips enable due to new virtualization, performance,
and efficiency enhancements. Each new Opteron chip has up to 34
percent more performance per watt over AMD's previous quad-core
processors.

The HP xw9400 workstation can seat two of the chips, for a total of 12
cores.

HP also announced in June that of seven ProLiant G6 servers would be
powered by new AMD six-core Opteron processors, which were officially
released June 1.

Cisco Launches Linux WiFi Router with Media Sharing

In June, Cisco announced a new Linux-powered router, a Linksys
Wireless-N Router, model WRT160NL. The new model is essentially the
next generation of the popular WRT54GL.

The design of the product is similar to other Linksys/Cisco N-routers,
but has integrated connectors for external antennae. Consumers that
prefer external aerials can enjoy the new router design because of the
integrated R-SMA antenna connectors. The integrated Storage Link
functionality lets consumers connect their USB storage device to the
router to create a powerful media sharing solution for video, photo,
and music sharing through the integrated media server.

"In the past we have had many successful Linux powered devices, with
the WRT54GL and NSLU2 being great examples. The WRT160NL is the
logical next step combining Linux, 802.11n technology, and USB storage
functionality. We see the WRT160NL as a possible successor of our
WRT54GL as the market transitions to 802.11n," said Aaron Marinari,
senior product manager, Cisco Consumer Business Group.

Deividson Luiz Okopnik

Deividson was born in União da Vitória, PR, Brazil, on
14/04/1984. He became interested in computing when he was still a kid,
and started to code when he was 12 years old. He is a graduate in
Information Systems and is finishing his specialization in Networks and
Web Development. He codes in several languages, including C/C++/C#, PHP,
Visual Basic, Object Pascal and others.

Deividson works in Porto União's Town Hall as a Computer
Technician, and specializes in Web and Desktop system development, and
Database/Network Maintenance.

Howard Dyckoff

Howard Dyckoff is a long term IT professional with primary experience at
Fortune 100 and 200 firms. Before his IT career, he worked for Aviation
Week and Space Technology magazine and before that used to edit SkyCom, a
newsletter for astronomers and rocketeers. He hails from the Republic of
Brooklyn [and Polytechnic Institute] and now, after several trips to
Himalayan mountain tops, resides in the SF Bay Area with a large book
collection and several pet rocks.

Howard maintains the Technology-Events blog at
blogspot.com from which he contributes the Events listing for Linux
Gazette. Visit the blog to preview some of the next month's NewsBytes
Events.